Jesus Jones: Do you Feel Real?

Back in around 1990, I remember hearing "Right Here, Right Now". A friend of mine - a Rush fan, interestingly,
introduced me to the song. The reason I point out he was a Rush fan is that "Right Here, Right Now" is
nothing like a Rush song - yet he was proud to say he liked it. Moreover, Rush fans are pretty tough
customers when it comes to music. Therefore, if he liked "Right Here, Right Now", it had to be good.

At first listen, I found "Right Here, Right Now" pretty catchy. It was unlike the other songs out at the time, in that it was
a synthesis of pop and dance, rather than one or the other. It had some hints of harder rock - the guitar solo, for
instance. Yet the song stayed unified, and was very short.

The key message in "Right Here, Right Now" is, of course, that the past and the future are nowhere. "Right here,
right now: There's no other place I want to be", claims the lead singer (Mike Edwards). Well, in my life at the time, things were going downhill.
I was headed off to university for years of poverty and struggle.

In the boom and bust cycle of my life, 1996 started out bust, but boomed. Riding a wave a prosperity, I was able to re-examine
what I'd missed from the earlier 90s. In 1998 I discovered "Real Real Real" on the radio. Hearing it, I realized I had heard snatches
of it over the years. I immediately fell in love with the song - and wasn't too surprised when the DJ said it was by Jesus Jones.

In fact, "Real Real Real" was on the same album - Doubt - as "Right Here, Right Now". However, it wasn't as
popular (then) as "Right Here, Right Now". As so often happens, however, I'd say "Real Real Real" is more popular today.

Jesus Jones wasn't shy about tackling issues - as "Real Real Real" ironically exemplifies. "Say what you like - you know that no one...really
minds," the song claims. Yet, in 1990, political correctness was blooming: it was (and remains) dangerous to say anything without
careful consideration and editing. With "Right Here, Right Now" - which discusses the sudden end of the Cold War - and Real Real
Real - which ironically points out that very little will be "real" again for a long time - Jesus Jones keeps us aware.